This was such a terrible story. If it hadn't been Kirstie Alley playing this despicably cruel character, I don't think I could have watched it.
This seemed like a normal family, respected by the community because of their charity efforts, and because the parents took in so many foster children. But the Geck children, and the foster children, were forced to steal, and the Gecks owned apartment buildings which mysteriously caught fire when certain tenants didn't pay rent. And the disabled mother of one foster child was kept locked in the basement.
Kathleen Wilhoite did such a good job as a girl treated so harshly she apparently couldn't feel pain any more. She seemed almost happy with her life because she didn't know any better. That was just sad.
I'm not sure which would have been worse: that these people were real, or that someone could have been sick enough to make up this story. The story, unfortunately, was true. I wish it hadn't been. Still an entertaining presentation.